Need help IMMEDIATELY on laptop problem

I recently bought a laptop on eBay. It's a Dell Inspiron 8600 with probably the weakest configuration that was offered when it was still in Dell's product line. The LCD was stated to be cracked, but the machine was otherwise "100% functional." I bought this laptop because I have also recently come into possession of a Samsung 15.4" WUXGA panel that is supposed to be compatible with the 8600; I was hoping to not only replace the screen but give the resolution (originally WXGA) a nice boost. Well, today I finally received the package, and I was eager to see the new screen in action. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Interestingly enough, Windows correctly recognized the maximum resolution of the panel (I was running the laptop with an external monitor now), and upon close examination, turning on the power does cause all of the pixels to go solid black. Distressed, I knew a number of possibilities that could be the explanation.

The first priority was to see if I could get a partial display on the cracked screen; this way I could conclusively prove that the LCD controller in the computer was working and that my WUXGA panel just simply wasn't supported. After all, I've seen several pictures of cracked LCDs, and they've all been able to display pieces of picture. But when I swapped in the original screen, I discovered that I could not get any image either; at the very most, the backlight shone through clearly in some pieces, but curiously not ALL of the pieces -- the rest were just black. So now I'm not sure what the situation is. I need answers to two questions: 1) Can an LCD panel be so thoroughly cracked that no picture can display, even if the controller is properly working? 2) We all know that Dell has offered super-high resolution screens, like WUXGA, on a few of its medium-sized laptops as an option, but does anyone know for sure if the LCD controller installed when the option is selected is the same as or different from the standard controller?

Thanks for any insight that you can provide. I need to know ASAP to help me decide what to do next. (If we can conclusively prove that the controller is not working, then I can complain to get a refund, since the "100% functional claim would not be true.)

 

If you had a working LCD that is compatible with this computer, you could determine if the controller is functional.

 

well...if the screen was cracked then the 100& functional comment would not be true anyway.

 

To mikhail_scosyrev: Obviously, the problem is that I do not have such a panel or else I wouldn't be asking for expert advice here.

To Lil Mayz: "100% functional" here would mean that every component works to some obvious, practical extent. And furthermore, the screen was already noted as cracked in the listing, so that was no surprise to me. But even a cracked screen could technically be called functional if it displayed any useable picture; the cracks just make it a lot more difficult to use. You couldn't call a scratch on your screen to be an impairment of its functionality, could you? The issue here is whether the controller is broken or not. The only serious defect noted in the listing was the cracked screen, which implies nothing wrong with the controller, which would mean that installing a new screen should work. But if the controller is broken, then I would have cause for complaint, since the defect wasn't mentioned and would've seriously affected my bid (as in I would not have bid at all).

 

Have you tried hooking up the laptop to an external monitor and switching over?